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Iration’s Truckee expats bring sunny island vibe back to Tahoe

Iration, from left, Joe Dickens, Adam Taylor, Micah Pueschel, Cayson Peterson and Kai Rediske. Iration, Orgone and headliner Rebelution perform Sunday, Jan. 16.
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From the sunshine to the snow, members of the quintet Iration spent a month surfing in Hawaii before heading out on a two-month concert tour. Iration’s full-length album “Time Bomb,” released in March, was No. 1 on the U.S. iTunes reggae albums chart and No. 40 on the overall music chart. It releases an EP, “Fresh Grounds,” on Feb. 1. Lake Tahoe Action’s Tim Parsons spoke with singer-guitarist Micah Pueschel about the tour and his band, which includes Joe Dickens (drums), Adam Taylor (bass), Cayson Peterson (keys) Kai Rediske (vocals-percussion).

Q: How do you describe the Iration sound?

Pueschel: Reggae with pop sensibility. Reggae rock is what people in the genre (call it). Our sound is really pop with reggae base.



Q: Where are you from?

Pueschel: We’re all originally from Hawaii. We relocated to Santa Barbara and started the band. Everyone surfs, so we needed to stay near the ocean. We all went to grade school together but we didn’t form the band until we went to college at UC Santa Barbara. We’ve been full time in music for about three years.



Q: Island music is ubiquitous in Hawaii. It must be in your blood.

Pueschel: Island music is just part of who we are and where we come from, so there’s a vibe to the music that has that flavor to it. We don’t necessarily play island music but it ends up having that sunny island vibe to it.

Q: Have you played Tahoe before?

Pueschel: Actually three of us are all from Truckee and then we relocated to Hawaii. We used to go to Tahoe for spring break to go skiing and snowboarding. We’ve never actually played in Tahoe. This will be our first show there.

Q: What do you know about Rebelution?

Pueschel: We came up together at the same time in Santa Barbara. They have a more political and socially conscious lyrical content, but we share a pop thing. They are more in the roots-reggae vein then we are. They have that California thing and they have an island vibe. We pretty much started the same way, playing house parties in Santa Barbara.

Q: What our your songs about?

Pueschel: Our lyrics are what is real to us and current. “Time Bomb” was almost like a concept thing about relationships and love and all the different aspects of that. We like to do songs that are more inspirational, more feel-good music. We do not get weighed down with any heavy message.

Q: A large crowd is anticipated for Sunday’s show at MontBleu. This looks like an exciting tour for you.

Pueschel: The House of Blues (San Diego) is sold out for our first two nights of the tour and in Oakland we play at the Fox Theater and that’s about to be sold out too. How’s the weather up there? We have a day off after the show in Tahoe.

Q: We have a lot of snow and a storm called for this week. So your timing is very good. Where will you ski?

Pueschel: Probably Heavenly or Squaw.

Q: How is Iration evolving?

Pueschel: We still feel like we have a long ways to go. You always should be growing and learning and we’re still a young band. I guess you never get to a point where you feel 100 percent in everything. Musically we’ll go from playing roots reggae to more uptempo indie rock, and our new album has some acoustic stuff. We try to be open to anything. Whatever feels right for the song, that’s what it is.


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